MovieChat Forums > You Better Watch Out Discussion > Christmas Evil / You Better Watch Out / ...

Christmas Evil / You Better Watch Out / Terror In Toyland

posted 17 years ago by AWERTH
3 replies | jump to latest

I always have wondered why there are 3 titles for this movie?

One title seems like the official real title.

2 others could be alternate titles I guess.

I watched the first part of this on Youtube and the title when the film started was You Better Watch Out.

My Troma DVD is Christmas Evil??

But the movies themselves are exactly the same.

So how do they alternate titles at tht start of the film??

Which is the real title?

Which are the alternate titles??

What are the purposes of signatures!!..

[–] Squonkamatic 17 years ago

From what I gather the film flopped as YOU BETTER WATCH OUT, which was the original title and when released on home video was titled CHRISTMAS EVIL in an attempt to play up the "Killer Santa" slasher angle. I have an old VHS by a company called Saturn Video that has a 1983 date on it, and while it was still poorly regarded when re-packaged as a horror film it did apparently inspire a couple of other Killer Santa knockoffs, starting with DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS in 1983 and most notably SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT which was famously picketed by parent's groups when released in 1984.

TERROR IN TOYLAND is also another home video release title that I think is only germane to England and may be an unofficial re-titling by a home video distributor -- I have not been able to find an example of that release on home video so the conclusion I came to is that it is from overseas & has a British sounding ring to it. I believe the inspiration from that title is the sequence where Harry's nephews are watching BABES IN TOYLAND on TV supposedly on Christmas day.

I have not seen the Troma DVD but the version to get is Synapse's 2006 DVD which has the original title in place and the John Waters/Lewis Jackson commentary track.

[–] MichaelM24 13 years ago

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

But what many seem to not know is there was also a fourth(!) title. I have an old issue of "Cinefantastique" from the early-1980s. It features an article on producer Edward Pressman about his upcoming projects, including this one, and the article refers to it by the title SANTA. I think the article refers to the film has being in post-production or "upcoming," so it would seem that SANTA was the original title, or maybe just a working title. It would be interesting to see some behind-the-scenes footage and glimpse what title is written on the clapboard to see what the film was actually shot as.

[–] stickley85 13 years ago

Weird hah?When I rented it back in the day at the video store my copy was called Terror In Toyland.Then about 4-5 years later I saw it under a different title called Christmas Evil.But the best title is the original title which is You Better Watch Out.